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Stage Coach Cafe

Friendly service, Mexican and American dishes and a big selection of pies. 505-783-4288; 3370 Bond St/Hwy 53, Ramah; mains $6-10; 10am-6pm Mon-Sat, to 4pm Sun

USEFUL WEBSITES

www.ancientway-route53.com

LINK YOUR TRIP www.lonelyplanet.com/trip-planner

TRIP

2 Motoring the Mother Road: Route 66

41 Mountain Biking Gallup

42 Pueblo Life

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Mountain Biking Gallup

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WHY GO Move over Moab, it’s Gallup’s turn in the saddle. Whether it’s racing down psychedelic-orange slickrock, lung-busting up high desert mesas or dropping into narrow aspen glades, the nearly 200 miles of single track around this old Route 66 motoring town is the wickedest mountain biking in New Mexico.

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TIME

3 days

DISTANCE

150 miles

BEST TIME TO GO

May – Oct

START

Gallup, NM

END

Gallup, NM

ALSO GOOD FOR

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Once just another fading pit stop on old Route 66, Gallup has been reinvented as New Mexico’s mountain-biking capital. From aspen forest to high desert, slickrock to mesa, beginner to advanced, the single-track trails here are big on variety, but small on crowds. Unlike Moab, Gallup has yet to become a trend.

Gallup’s trail networks are a homegrown community initiative, built by locals, with more trails added every year. Pay a visit to High Mesa Bikes for the latest trail scoop. Owner Albert Ortega helped build Gallup’s trail systems and doles out advice with a smile.

After stocking up on maps and power bars, it’s (almost) time to hit the trail – you can ride right to the trailhead; it’s just 3 miles north of Gallup. From downtown, go north on Hwy 491 to Chino Loop Rd and look for the gravel parking lot on the left side; this is the Gamerco Trailhead, the eastern entrance to the excellent High Desert Trail System. High Desert boasts 23 miles of exposed mesa top and crumbly terrain – read loose rocks and sand – on three loops of varying difficulty that can be ridden in one mammoth circuit or individually. Warm up on First Mesa Loop, the only track suitable for beginners. Fly downhill for half a mile, cross a flat, boggy stretch scented with cedar, then start a long, slow burn to the top of the first mesa and the Six Flag Junction. If you’re feeling good – and you’re at least an intermediate cyclist – turn right and continue on to the more challenging Second Mesa Loop; combined it’s a 13-mile round-trip jaunt. Otherwise turn right and head back around the mesa to the starting gate for an 8-mile round trip. After your ride, refresh yourself with an ice-cold beer from the take-away liquor shop next to the Gamerco trailhead called The Tropics (a local favorite).

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DETOUR

To really get off the line, visit the Twin Springs Trail head. Located 35 miles southeast of Gallup off Hwy 400, Twin Springs already has 70 miles of forest trails, with more planned. Don’t miss the ride through the mesmerizing 2.5-mile-long aspen corridor. The slickrock is also pretty killer. Ask Albert at High Mesa Bikes for trail recommendations.

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After a day of bumpy thrill riding, you’ll be ready for an original Route 66 crash pad, the El Rancho Hotel. Popular with the Hollywood crowd from the ’30s to the ’60s – Humphrey Bogart, Katherine Hepburn, and John Wayne – it’s now listed as a National Historic Site. Check out the superb two-story open lobby decorated in Navajo-meets-rustic-lodge style. The hotel’s El Rancho Restaurant is in a slightly kitschy spaghetti Western setting. (Nearly all the “leading lady” dishes are of the fruit with sorbet or cottage cheese variety.) After dinner, sip a margarita at the hotel’s old-time 49ers Bar.

On day two, mix things up and start with the most challenging trail, the Third Mesa Loop. This trail crosses the highest mesa top and starts from the western end’s Mentmore Trailhead. When combined with the Second Mesa Loop it is an awesome, but very technical, 15-mile